Minister of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said a person in Dauphin County tested positive after known international exposure. This variant is the same one that was first discovered in England in December.
Scientists in the UK have said there is no evidence that it causes more serious disease, but it can spread more easily.
The person had mild symptoms, which have since resolved as they completed isolation at home, officials said.
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Pennsylvania has been preparing for this variant by working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has been sending random samples to the CDC biweekly since November to study the sequencing and possible cases for this new COVID. – 19 variant, ”said Levine. “Public health experts are in the early stages of their work to better understand this new variant, how it spreads and how it affects people infected with it.”
To date, there have been 609,905 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state and 16,914 Pennsylvanians have died of the virus.
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